Finnair defers three A350 deliveries, eyes 2021 “ramp-up”

Finnair (AY, Helsinki Vantaa) announced on November 6 that it had concluded an agreement with Airbus to defer delivery of the remaining three A350-900s in its overall order for 19 of the aircraft type, as anticipated in its third-quarter results. The aircraft were originally due for delivery between the second quarter of 2021 and the second quarter of 2022, and, on average, the new delivery dates will be 24 months later than originally scheduled. As a result, Finnair’s investment cash flow will be around EUR200 million euros (USD238 million) less in 2021, the carrier said. In its financial report released on October 28, Finnair recounted that it took delivery of one new A350 during the third quarter of 2020, so that at the end of the quarter it had sixteen A350s delivered between 2015 and 2020. The airline’s investment commitments for property and equipment, totalling EUR441 million euro (USD522 million), include these upcoming investments in its widebody fleet. “Finnair has the possibility to adjust the size of its fleet in line with demand forecasts through the staggered maturities of its lease agreements and changes in the number of owned aircraft, and by renegotiating the delivery schedules of committed aircraft purchases,” the report said. The report summarised that it had 61 aircraft, of which 24 are widebodies and 37 narrowbodies, which tallies with figures in the ch-aviation fleets advanced module: eight A319-100s, ten A320-200s, nineteen A321-200s, eight A330-300s, and sixteen A350-900s. During a conference call, CEO Topi Manner forecasted that a “ramp-up in terms of demand starting to pick up will materialise on a bigger scale at the start of the [2021] summer season, so basically at the end of March, April, next spring.” The final three months of the year are likely to yield a similar result to the last two quarters, he admitted during the call, according to Reuters. “Travel restrictions, which are particularly strict in Finland, led us to deviate from our plans and we continued to operate a restricted network throughout the quarter,” he said. The 55.9% state-owned flag carrier posted a EUR167 million (USD197 million) underlying operating loss for the third quarter ending September 30. This followed a EUR174.3 million (USD206 million) loss in the previous quarter. Finnair made a profit of EUR100.7 million (USD119 million) during the third quarter of 2019. Finnair’s cost-cutting target will rise by a further EUR40 million (USD47 million) to EUR140 million (USD166 million), it said in a statement on October 28, and its workforce will decline by almost 1,100 compared to the beginning of 2020. To achieve even more savings, Finnair said in another statement on October 28 that it was in talks with “the relevant authorities” to remove some pension index increments. If approved, this will cut at least another EUR85 million (USD100 million) from fourth-quarter costs.